Dozens of Palestinians were killed or wounded this Sunday in an Israeli attack on a multi-story residential building where at least six families lived in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya, doctors and residents reported.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said that about 70 people lived in the building, but the Gaza government’s press office put the death toll at 72.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which has been fighting the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023. Israel has often accused Hamas’ press office of exaggerating the death toll.
Bodies in the morgue of the Deir Al Balah refugee camp, in Gaza
Last month, the Israeli army sent tanks to Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, in what it called a campaign to combat Hamas militants. who launched attacks and prevent them from regrouping. Gazan authorities estimate the death toll at more than 2,000 since the siege began.
Israeli authorities claimed they had killed hundreds of militants in those three areas, which residents said Israeli forces had cut off from Gaza City.
Israel’s attacks continue despite calls from the United Nations Security Council for an immediate ceasefire, and directives from the International Court of Justice in January to take precautionary measures to prevent possible genocide.
Increase in deaths
A statement from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, said on Sunday that fighters had blown up an Israeli army vehicle during fighting in Beit Lahiya. Israel had no immediate comment on this claim.
Later on Sunday, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinians, tasked with escorting aid trucks entering the enclave, according to residents in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Another attack in Gaza City killed two men, they added.
Earlier in the day, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip when a missile hit a house, according to medics. Four other people died in the nearby Nuseirat camp, they added.
Qatar has told Hamas and Israel that it will paralyze their efforts to mediate a ceasefire agreement and release of hostages in Gaza until they show “will and seriousness” to resume talks. The two opposing sides continue to exchange blame.
Hamas wants a deal to end the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 43,800 people have been confirmed dead since October 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed about 1,200 Israelis that day, and are still holding dozens of the roughly 250 hostages they took to Gaza, according to Israeli counts.
The Palestinian National Authority condemns the attack and blames the United States
The Palestinian National Authority this Sunday condemned the attack on Beit Lahia, in the northern area of Gaza besieged for more than a month by the Army, and blamed the United States (US) for allowing the “bloody aggression” in the Strip.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the offensive is the “result of (the United States) having given the Israeli occupation authorities political cover to escape punishment and defy international legitimacy resolutions.”
In this sense, Rudeina called on the United States to force Israel to stop the aggression in Gaza and comply with Resolution 2735 of the United Nations Security Council, consisting of the organization’s support for the ceasefire proposal presented by the president. outgoing American, Joe Biden.
This proposal, which the UN supports but which was not implemented by the parties, calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, where 43,846 have died since the beginning of the Israeli offensive, as well as subsequent negotiations to establish the definitive cessation of hostilities.
The Islamist organization Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, assured that the bombing in Beit Lahia highlights that the enclave faces a “genocidal” war.
“The ongoing massacres, genocide and famine, which seek to displace our people and erase our national cause, will not succeed in their objectives or in breaking the will of our people,” the group’s statement stated.
Hamas also called on the international community and the UN, as well as Arab states and Islamic governments, to “stop the state of helplessness and silence towards these crimes,” as well as to take action so that Israel stops its offensive and, especially in at this time, lift the siege against northern Gaza.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
